Emergence

Good question. As told: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. At the same time, everything we see or feel must emerge from a greater whole--the thing that allows all of this/us to co-exist.

In a lexical sense, the only "system" without a greater whole is the space between the system. This, I reason, is the system itself. Our sense-impressions and organs emerge or are generated from this whole-self, a non-system-system that is "mind" or consciousness.